Mike Israetel

maybe nine-ish. I still have some striations in my glutes. I have like one of the least aesthetic physiques imaginable, but thank you genetics for that one. And I did some things earlier in my career. I gained a ton of weight. It was muscle and fat, stretched my skin out, gave me massive love handles. When you lose that weight, the skin still sticking around.

So I'm actually planning on some extensive cosmetic surgery in about a few months here to address that issue finally. So yeah, I've gained a lot of muscle over the years. For me, the whole journey fundamentally is a personal journey of wanting to occupy a body that is two things. One, that I aesthetically enjoy being in. And two, one, that I had a large hand in creating or curating.

So I'm actually planning on some extensive cosmetic surgery in about a few months here to address that issue finally. So yeah, I've gained a lot of muscle over the years. For me, the whole journey fundamentally is a personal journey of wanting to occupy a body that is two things. One, that I aesthetically enjoy being in. And two, one, that I had a large hand in creating or curating.

And the curation is almost as fun as the creation. Like you see an artist draw something on a canvas and a huge amount of Joy comes from creating the main arc of everything you're doing, the main shapes, main lines, main coloring. But you know when artists have something almost complete and they do a little pencil in pencil there?

And the curation is almost as fun as the creation. Like you see an artist draw something on a canvas and a huge amount of Joy comes from creating the main arc of everything you're doing, the main shapes, main lines, main coloring. But you know when artists have something almost complete and they do a little pencil in pencil there?

Once you have something that looks amazing and you're optimizing, oh, there's something super beautiful about that. It's like watching someone take a very finely tuned F1 car and just wrench a couple of the screws in and polish it off. It's just, oh, this is so beautiful. Not that my body is attractive, it's not grotesque, but less grotesque is what I'm aiming for.

Once you have something that looks amazing and you're optimizing, oh, there's something super beautiful about that. It's like watching someone take a very finely tuned F1 car and just wrench a couple of the screws in and polish it off. It's just, oh, this is so beautiful. Not that my body is attractive, it's not grotesque, but less grotesque is what I'm aiming for.

And I don't know if it's working or not. My hairiness kind of precludes any of that.

And I don't know if it's working or not. My hairiness kind of precludes any of that.

He not only makes it look so easy, he's communicating that.

He not only makes it look so easy, he's communicating that.

an empowerment about creating art yes like everybody could be yeah he's like you're doing this with me right right and you're like oh i sure am and he's like you see this cloud in the way we're gonna make it a tree and you try it at home and you're like i just messed up everything this looks terrible if i had to describe my physique and my genetics it would be like a lot of bob ross style having to fix things are like oh that looks terrible let's pretend i was drawing something else

an empowerment about creating art yes like everybody could be yeah he's like you're doing this with me right right and you're like oh i sure am and he's like you see this cloud in the way we're gonna make it a tree and you try it at home and you're like i just messed up everything this looks terrible if i had to describe my physique and my genetics it would be like a lot of bob ross style having to fix things are like oh that looks terrible let's pretend i was drawing something else

If you have to be mindful of extremes, in almost every case, you have already been on a multi-years long, very immersive, very infatuated, very disciplined journey of resistance training and focused nutrition. And the organization of many variables and parts of your life around that task, it's unlikely to be something you pick up a lifting hobby and just find yourself excessively muscular. Oops.

If you have to be mindful of extremes, in almost every case, you have already been on a multi-years long, very immersive, very infatuated, very disciplined journey of resistance training and focused nutrition. And the organization of many variables and parts of your life around that task, it's unlikely to be something you pick up a lifting hobby and just find yourself excessively muscular. Oops.

So that's probably my best answer for that. It's just insanely unrealistic in most cases to wander into that sort of thing. The myth of accidental muscle. Yes. People say more money, more problems. First of all, I've met various philosophical grounds. I think that's absurd, but you don't accidentally become ultra wealthy. And by God, I wish you the best if that happens to you.

So that's probably my best answer for that. It's just insanely unrealistic in most cases to wander into that sort of thing. The myth of accidental muscle. Yes. People say more money, more problems. First of all, I've met various philosophical grounds. I think that's absurd, but you don't accidentally become ultra wealthy. And by God, I wish you the best if that happens to you.

I'll cry a tear for you. But in much the same way, almost nobody accidentally becomes hypermuscular to the extent that they're on that side of the spectrum that trade-offs are starting to become apparent. Probably the biggest trade-off in the short to medium term is opportunity cost, things you could have spent doing outside of being in the gym.

I'll cry a tear for you. But in much the same way, almost nobody accidentally becomes hypermuscular to the extent that they're on that side of the spectrum that trade-offs are starting to become apparent. Probably the biggest trade-off in the short to medium term is opportunity cost, things you could have spent doing outside of being in the gym.

But the way the science of resistance training works is for almost all of the health benefits and the longevity benefits and the quality of life benefits, the amount of time you need to be training per week is measured in the one to three hour range with three being like, you're really full sending it one to three hours per week.